“Some people showed up, some people didn’t. You can’t single anybody out but as a whole, the team didn’t show up.”JASON KIDD

Hawks 97

Nets 92

ATLANTA – For the first time in a Nets uniform, Jason Kidd questioned his teammates effort, called them out for their performance.

Speaking in restrained and calm tones – while insisting he wasn’t upset – Kidd after wasting the 50th triple double of his career said there “was no effort at all” and stressed disappointment following the Nets’ bitter 97-92 defeat to the go-nowhere-in-a-hurry Hawks here last night.

The setback dropped the Nets into a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference with Detroit, but it was a damaging loss because the Pistons hold the tie-breaker edge.

“Some people showed up, some people didn’t. You can’t single anybody out but . . . as a whole, the team didn’t show up,” said Kidd (23 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds), who directed a furious fourth-quarter comeback that erased all of a 17-point deficit. “It was there for the guys who were out there in the fourth quarter. They gave the effort. A couple guys gave great effort but as a team, as a whole there was no effort at all.”

So instead of being a night of comebacks, a night that would be remembered for Kidd having a hand in every point of a 14-0 run that began after the Hawks (32-46), who got 24 points from Jason Terry, went up 78-61 with 10:28 to play, it became a night of disappointment and blown opportunity.

“It’s tough to win a game where you don’t come out ready to play. We had one guy who truly understood what this game meant, how important this game was and that was No. 5 (Kidd),” said Byron Scott who rode a hot fourth-quarter hand and kept Kenyon Martin (8 points, 3 rebounds) on the bench for the entire quarter along with Richard Jefferson (14 points), who sat the final 9:33.

“After everything we faced, to come out short in a game like this is tough to swallow. We know we’re better than that,” said Kerry Kittles (14 points), part of the late-game comeback lineup along with Dikembe Mutombo, Rodney Rogers, Lucious Harris, Kittles and Kidd. “If we played hard like late in the third and in the fourth, how can that team beat us?”

Well, the Hawks did it by banging away with 11-of-18 on 3-pointers, including two critical ones in the endgame by Shareef Abdur-Rahim (18 points) and Ira Newble (16 points). But the Nets all insist it shouldn’t have come to the endgame. The sins were committed far sooner.

“Tonight was one of those nights where there was nobody running with me,” said Kidd, who basically called out his team the way Martin called out Keith Van Horn after the Finals last June. “I didn’t have any wing players. That happens. Unfortunately, I didn’t think it was going to happen tonight.”

Not with what was at stake. The Nets went in up one game on Detroit, knowing a sweep of the final five games secured the top seed in the East for the playoffs.

Still, after using a passive-resistance defense for most of the night, they were down 17. Kidd took off. From 10:28 to 8:05 he scored seven points, assisted seven more, three on a shot by Rogers (15 points). Later the game was tied at 87 and at 90. Then Newble hit a 3-pointer. A nets miss ensued.

Next came the back-breaker. Abdur-Rahim went to the line at :42.1 – after an offensive rebound. He missed both free throws. But on the second miss, the ball was tapped around – and Newble recovered. That wasn’t as bad as what followed: an Abdur-Rahim triple at :17.8 for a 96-90 lead. Say good night, Nets.

*

Martin offered no comment after the game. Jefferson of his benching said, “That’s Coach Scott’s decision. The guys started to make a run. I thought I was getting in a groove but things like that really don’t matter on this team.”